Give Me Liberty or Give Me Hamburger
by suzie2b
Summary: It's all about the words


**Disclaimer:** _ **The Rat Patrol**_ **is not my property. They come out to play sometimes, then I send them home.**

 **Author's note: Many in America wanted to promote anti-German sentiment in any way possible, including renaming the beloved hamburger "liberty steak." They were worried that it would make people like the town of Hamburg, Germany. Some people even began recycling the anti-German names from WW1, like renaming dachshunds as "liberty pups."**

 **Give Me Liberty or Give Me Hamburger**

 **By Suzie2b**

 **Tully was in the mess hall making a snack of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and powdered milk while reading one of the hometown newspapers his mother sends. He was reading the sports page when he was joined by Hitch with his preferred snack of two donuts and coffee. Tully gave him a smile and said, "Hi."**

 **Hitch mumbled around a bite of glazed cake donut, "Afternoon." He swallowed. "What's going on back home?"**

 **Tully said, "The Thompson's had a barn raising after a fire burned the other one to the ground. Sounds like it turned into quite a party. Parson's Feed and Grain had a sale on straw and sold out in two hours…"**

 **Hitch chuckled. "Sounds interesting."**

" **Well, there is this one article that says the U.S. government is going to make some changes to what people call certain things."**

" **Like what?"**

 **Tully flipped back to the article and said, "They want to change 'hamburger' to 'liberty steak' so people won't take a liking to Hamburg, Germany. 'French fries' will become 'freedom fries' and 'french toast' will be 'freedom toast'."**

 **Hitch set his coffee aside and said incredulously, "You're kidding!"**

 **Tully turned the newspaper around and flat on the table. Then pointed to the article and said, "No kidding. Says here they even want to call those little wiener dogs '** **liberty pups' instead of 'dachshunds'."**

 **Hitch laughed as he perused the article. "I can't believe anyone would take the side of the Germans just because of words Americans use!"**

" **I'm finding out there are an awful lotta words we use that have German origin."**

" **I never really thought about it, but yeah I guess there are. But still…"**

 **Tully smiled and said, "Take the word '** **bratwurst' for example…"**

 **Hitch said, "It's a German style sausage."**

" **Yep. We could change it to 'liberty sausage'."**

" **And there's always** **'autobahn'. That could become 'freewill highway'."**

 **Tully chuckled. "Perfect. A 'delicatessen' can be a 'freedom deli'."**

 **Hitch and Tully were both laughing, even though the people around them looked at them like they were crazy.**

 **Moffitt walked in and wondered what was going on until he spotted the laughing pair of privates. He smiled, got a mug of tea, and joined them. "What are you two finding so funny?"**

 **Hitch replied, "There's an article in Tully's newspaper about the American government changing German words we use."**

 **Moffitt looked confused and Tully pushed the paper across to him. "Read that."**

 **The sergeant sipped his tea as he read the short article. When he finished, all Moffitt could say was, "Oh my."**

 **Hitch grinned. "So far we've come up with 'bratwurst' becoming 'liberty sausage' and 'autobahn' becomes the 'freewill highway'."**

 **Tully added, "And a 'delicatessen' is now a 'freedom deli'."**

 **Moffitt was amused as he offered, "What about 'brezel'?"**

 **Hitch asked, "What's that?"**

 **Tully said, "German for 'pretzel'."**

 **Moffitt nodded. "I was thinking perhaps it could be a 'liberty twist'."**

 **The three of them laughed heartily and ignored the stares they were receiving. When they'd settled down a bit, Hitch asked, "What're you doing here, sarge?"**

 **Moffitt picked up his mug. "Just thought a cup of tea sounded good. What about you two?"**

 **Tully said, "I wanted a snack and brought one of my newspapers from home to read."**

 **Hitch said, "I came in for a snack too and found Tully with his paper." They were quiet for a minute, then he asked, "Isn't 'schnauzer' a German word?"**

 **Moffitt nodded. "A breed of dog first bred in Germany."**

" **That's what I thought. How about a 'determined dog'."**

" **Then there's 'kindergarten'…"**

 **Tully grinned. "That's an easy one. 'Determined children'."**

 **They were again laughing when Troy appeared and sat down with a mug of coffee. "What's so funny?"**

 **Moffitt, Hitch, and Tully explain the article and told Troy about the words they'd come up with. He grinned and shook his head as he said, "Only the U.S. government would come up with something like this."**

 **Hitch smiled. "What about you, sarge? You got any words in mind?"**

" **Hmmm … let's see. Isn't 'seltzer' German?" Both Moffitt and Tully nodded and Troy said, "How 'bout 'liberty soda'."**

 **They all laughed as Moffitt said, "Excellent!"**

 **Tully offered, "Charley and I were dancin' a waltz last night at home. We were doing a 'freedom dance'."**

 **Again they laughed, then Hitch asked, "You were doing a waltz?"**

 **Tully shrugged. "Well, sort of. Charley was trying to teach me, but I don't think I'm cutout for those fancy dances. I'm more of a foxtrot or quickstep kinda guy." Then he said, "My sister Beth has a hamster named Martin. Hamster's a German word for a small rodent…"**

 **Troy sat back with a grin and said, "The Rat Patrol."**


End file.
